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Dissertation Information for Daniel Loftman Hurewitz

NAME:
- Daniel Loftman Hurewitz

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2001)

ADVISORS:
- Janice L. Reiff
- Ellen Carol DuBois

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- David Warren Sabean
- Joseph Bristow

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Made in Edendale: Bohemian Los Angeles and the politics of sexual identity, 1918--1953

Abstract: This study links the formation of post-New Deal identity politics directly to changed notions of personal identity, self-expression and political activism that emerged after World War One. The project traces that emergence through three sets of Angelenos: a rich network of artists, writers, and impresarios; a cohort of Communist Party organizers and fellow travelers; and a subculture of homosexual men and women. From their unique perspectives, each group propelled their contemporaries toward a new concept of selfhood that ultimately carried significant political implications. The and social relevance, fashioned an ideal of self-awareness and self-articulation that was pushed sharply toward social consciousness. Leftist activism about race relations and discrimination brought political attention to bear on how personal and minority identities were becoming steadily reified as categories of social oppression. By 1950, the homosexuals used the connection between social categorization and self-articulation to launch the nation's first sustained gay rights movement. That effort, which forged a public political identity around what had been the most intimate of personal characteristics, was emblematic of the kind of action that dominated urban political culture in the ensuing decades.

This dissertation reveals that the roots of fundamental political change lay in an arena not traditionally considered political, among shifting conceptions and experiences of selfhood. As such, this undertaking has relied on non-traditional analyses. It examines the social and emotional lives of political activists to expose the multiple bonds that constituted political commitment and idealism. It explores how notions of racial and ethnic identity served as templates for the formulation of a gay identity. It draws on questions of space to illuminate how the geographic experience of a neighborhood facilitated the construction of a shared sense of political community. This study challenges the simple paradigms of Los Angeles as either a sunshine land of Hollywood and health, or a noirish regime of daunting conservatism. What appears instead is a complex metropolis, vibrant with opposition politics and opposition cultures that both influenced each other and affected the city as a whole.

MPACT Scores for Daniel Loftman Hurewitz

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calculated 2008-09-03 22:44:49

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Students under Daniel Loftman Hurewitz

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None